9May 14

The second round heads towards its climax with this intriguing face-off between two veteran gaffers: Wichita Lineman, who has taken charge of Iran, and former Iran boss Mullah Rezmat, now the Switzerland manager. Iran topped group F with 6 points, Switzerland came second in Group E with 4. The victor faces the winner of South Korea v USA, which goes up Monday. Meanwhile, holders Nigeria have beaten France to set up an all-African quarter-final against Ghana or Algeria.

R16 6: Iran v Switzerland - Which Do You Pick?

IRAN: TALA 73%

SWIRZERLAND: Lo & Leduc 24%

Total Voters: 45

Poll closes: 15 May 2014 @ 13:00

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This game is up until Wednesday – tracks below the cut! (And we say goodbye to France too)

IRAN: TALA – “The Duchess”

“Iran return to their successful ploy of hypnotic instrumental work with unexpected skittering twists and changes of pace to throw the opposition. Tala is another new, female, Iranian artist/producer based in London. It is unknown whether The Duchess is a tribute to Bo Diddley’s sidekick.”

SWITZERLAND: Lo & Leduc – “All Die Buecher”

“We have the mountains, we have the outlands and the lowlands now — we have the air and the beat. We have the heart. Join us. But you already did.” Peace out, Rezmatt

SO FAREWELL THEN….: France, whose progress through Group E at the managerial hands of Jessica won them a lot of fans. In the end, there’s no shame in falling to the World Champions in what many commentators agreed was one of the finest of this year’s Pop World Cup matches. Their biggest hit with the crowd, though, was Indila ft Black M’s “Derniere Danse”, so let’s see that one again. Well done Les Bleus!

Comments

Two fine teams here. Iran play as though there was plenty of time to get the ball forward. There appears to be no recognised striker on the pitch, but with the strength of their defence and the midfield stroking it about as if it meant nothing (although it means everything), there’s a definite desire to unsettle the opposition. That bassline seems so familiar! Anyone who’s heard PSB’s “Introspective” will recognise it instantly.

Switzerland play direct. Horns surging forward passing diagonally to the strikers, but they have a tough Iranian defence to crack open. Can they make their shots count? This one could go right to the wire.

The Swiss deliver the most complete hip-hop track we’ve seen in the PWC since the Dutch’s Thunder, the two strikers are dexterous and their chorus line is delicious, punctuated by fine horns and sweeping percussive touches that seem poised enough to pick Iran’s tiki-taki attack and defense. I place my bet on the former, but Iran put in such a concerted laser-like and gracefully lady-like effort that even a potential win doesn’t seem easy to come by for the Swiss.

locked out of the commentary box I’m watching this from a nearby bar – the Swiss attackers’ telepathic interplay is frustrated by Iran who have parked the dub step bus in front of goal. The Helvetian midfield gets stretched and then a Persian counterattack catches them napping and wins the game.

The commentary box key has been found, so I will pretend I’m the Gary everyone throws to, before the real Gary works out what is happening (or is it Brian?).

Hard one this. One of the toughest of R16. Iran really impress here – defense is watertight, midfield is packed, and while the strikers seem barely there, it’s because they are ghosting around the front third with the opposition chasing shadows.

Switzerland is solid, the brass on the wings bursting forward from deep, and nice interchanges going on up front.

However a Swiss player trips over his own shoelaces and as he lays stunned on the floor, the ref gives an penalty ignoring his protestations. The penalty is deliberately missed but the ball bounces off the crossbar, onto a divot and spins into the goal with the keeper stranded. It’s unjust on Iran, but the result stand.

Being (as far as I know) the only genuine Brian amongst the comments crew, I’m appreciating the various shoutouts I’m getting during this tournament…

Anyway – now and again you settle down to watch a game you don’t expect much from but you’re very pleasantly surprised. Iran v Switzerland wouldn’t be box office in football, nor particularly in pop football, but these are two high-class teams who defy expectations and draw you entirely into their world for three or four minutes. Stylish, elegant play from Iran with beautiful sound formations, against Swiss joie de vivre and evident team spirit from youngsters to veterans. I’m going for Switzerland for the chorus and the brass, but again whichever team wins deserves it and whichever team goes out doesn’t deserve to. A second classic game in this second round, things are really warming up.

i was also a bit surprised by this result — not so much switzerland losing, but to lose by this margin!

the mullah is furious, hurtling off into a cold night shouting imprecations about stitch-ups and digital manipulation in his strange (and not entirely convincing) accent — though given his old links to the iranian pop league, never fully severed, i think he may secretly have been rooting for the nation that made his name. he is an odd fellow. do not let him hold your wallet or pilot your TARDIS.

Just getting a chance to listen now; am also surprised by the magnitude of Iran’s victory. I certainly could have voted for Iran (liked the Swiss track from the first second, but by the end did find it a bit samey; whereas the Iranian track was Beyond Samey And Anti-Samey). But further listens might have tipped me the other way.

Obv., if three-quarters of voters slightly prefer Tala, that explains the result. But usually things don’t go that way. Usually – at least observing the comment box – we see some voters with a mild preference, some with a strong preference, and at least a few with an overwhelming preference. And when we don’t see that spread for the winner, we usually get a tight result as well (e.g., Javiera Mena edging Perfume, and even there some commenters saw a pretty convincing victory for Mena). Intriguingly, the only other case where a team showing strong in the commentary box turned out to be losing decisively on the pitch was Group E Match 1, again featuring Switzerland, with the Swiss again winning the commentary and placing last in the field. But Switzerland was using a metal wild card in that one.

#11, I touched on this in the SK v Iran box, but it’s pretty clear by now that a comment box consensus on who would win/lose is like predicting the weather — I feel like you can get a feel for what team could very well on top in most games, but in other, more close ones, it’s not so clear.

In the groups it was easier because 1 — you could only vote for two — and 2 the quality wasn’t as refined as it is now, so you’d look at some group draw and maybe you could go figure pick which two wouldn’t end on top (the folky track, the abstract techno track) if there were two certified bangers ahead of it. I didn’t expect Algeria to end one of their group matches on top, but I could see in the comments that people were favoring it, so I thought that it would at least get second or third. There’s levels to this stuff though, your perception of a given match, the commentary’s collective perception, and the actual voters whose identities and preferences are clearly withheld from us outside of the raw percentages.

The only shred of hope in victory I had in the Chile / Japan match besides the ace song itself, was that the box seemed to be liking it more, but even then I knew it would be so close (PERFUME – HURLY BURLY), that the box wasn’t a super-great barometer, and I couldn’t really relax about it — because I had been there for the Swiss match, among other things, like England’s manager revealing worry about the box during the R16 match.

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